I can't get drawn into a long, complex discussion here, but as a '60's generation reader of history I think that the generations that start with the Baby Boomers, those who AS YET have no real experience of economic disaster or a truly threatening global war, those who have been insulated from the threat of weapons of global destruction, may find that the world is in fact much more like what their predecessors thought it was than what they think it is. They may yet have occasion to find out. Historically speaking, we are spoiled brats who live like kings of old and still throw tantrums and complain. We can't help it. We don't know any different. But give history a chance. It has a way of breaking in on people.
(Edited to add: I acknowledge, though, that the the mold-breaking spirit of the Baby Boomers and those that came afterward has brought some positive and needed change along with the destructive elements it introduced. When tradition becomes so ossified that it becomes needlessly stifling, then it's survival value is overshadowed. Look at the books and movies of the 1950's. Even the WW2 generation wanted to go on a hiatus from history and party after their long ordeal.)